


To Welcome Home

by rocksalts



Series: Suptober20 [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Coda, Episode: s15e14 Last Holiday, Gen, M/M, Post-Episode: s15e14 Last Holiday, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27137542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocksalts/pseuds/rocksalts
Summary: Dean asks Mrs. Butters to help him with one last thing before she goes: a welcome party for one angel Castiel.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Suptober20 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977244
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	To Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> suptober20 day 20 prompt: home (ficlet) | destiel, tfw 2.0, 15x14 coda | ~1.4k words

There was one last thing Dean wanted to ask.

He grabbed Mrs. Butters’ arm and gently pulled her aside. She had been packing her things, bustling around the bunker for hours to pull this or that into her bags before she left, and Dean finally managed to snag her.

She seemed surprised when she turned to face Dean, but not peeved by the disruption. He cleared his throat once, trying not to lose his nerve and at the same time signaling to her that his apprehensive silence was about to end.

“Hey, before you go, can you help me with something?”

She smiled sweetly at him, looking giddy at the request. Dean wondered briefly what it might be like to get such joy from tending to others.

“Of course, Dean. What would you like to do?”

Dean let out a breath. “We…have someone else that lives here, too. He’s been gone this whole time that you’ve been here, looking for—well, it doesn’t matter. But, I just…”

Mrs. Butters nodded, encouraging him to finish.

“I— _We_ miss him. So, I thought, I dunno, maybe we could throw him a little welcome home party, or something.” 

The idea sounded more ridiculous out loud than it had in Dean’s head. Mrs. Butters did birthdays and Christmas and Halloween pumpkin carving, not _welcome home_ parties for an angel who’d only been gone a couple of weeks.

But Mrs. Butters put a hand up before he could take back his request, making his mouth close on its own accord.

“I’m on it,” she said, patting his shoulder as if to placate him. “If he means that much to you, then it’s the least I can do.”

Dean forced a smile, not sure whether or not to be happy that she’d agreed. On one hand, Cas would probably appreciate that they did something for his return, but on the other, Dean’s stomach was coiling itself into a nervous knot.

Sure, he’d never basked in the glow of a Thanksgiving turkey before, or genuinely celebrated a birthday, but Dean had never done _this_ either. He’d never made home a place, made it anywhere other than his impala, other than Sam. The bunker was where they all _lived_ , it was where they ate and slept and took showers. It was their most recent constant, since Baby. A place to always come back to. 

But now there was a new constant. Now there were black dress shoes and a dirty tan trench coat and blue eyes that understood him all too well. Now there were four occupied rooms in a too-big Bunker that otherwise felt like a museum, and even though they’d had holidays and celebrations with Mrs. Butters, the feeling of _home_ had gone, and it was because someone was missing…it was because….

“Do you want to help me put up that end of the banner?” Mrs. Butters was asking.

Dean looked down to find that she was handing it to him.

It was a long banner to accommodate for the largeness of the bunker, white with “Welcome home, Cas!” written across the front of it in big block letters. It was cheesy, and with every step of this so far, Dean had been just a moment away from calling the whole thing off. The part that had nearly made him say _adios_ to the plan was when Jack and Sam walked in, grinning from ear to ear like they knew something he didn’t.

Dean walked over to put the banner up, trying to keep a keen sense of smell to know if the cake he was making was burning or not. It wasn’t for Cas, but he figured that if they were doing one final shebang for the family while Mrs. Butters’ sense of celebration still lingered, he could make Jack his first birthday cake.

He stepped back to admire their work.

Aside from the banner—which was set up pretty evenly across the entrance to the library, thanks to Dean—there were balloons littered around the room, blue and white and gold ones per Dean’s request.

Mrs. Butters had done well with the decorations, but had let Dean choose most of them to know what Cas would like. If he was honest, Dean had more or less just gone with his own taste in decorations, because he was pretty sure Cas didn’t really care for them or think twice about them, anyway. He just hoped that Cas would like the gesture enough to…to _stay_ , this time around.

On one of the library tables there were plates and cups stacked up, a few bottles of beer and some pigs in a blanket that Mrs. Butters had made them sat neatly on a platter in the center. It wasn’t the grandest of parties, but it was _something_ , and Dean thought maybe he could smell the cake burning, now.

But before he could bolt and check on his disaster, Mrs. Butters appeared next to him, and Dean jerked to a stop. She had her bags with her, but she set them down to bring her hands up to rest on his face.

“My work is done here, Dean.” She patted his cheek once.

“What? You—you’re not staying to…?” Dean’s question faded off, realizing that she had no clue who Cas was, anyway. His heart strained a little at that thought—at not knowing who he was. He couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her.

Mrs. Butters shook her head, then looked behind him to where they had set up the space for Cas’ homecoming.

“You did well, Dean. He’s going to love it. Oh! I almost forgot—” Mrs. Butters pulled her hands away from him, and Dean watched as she conjured up a bouquet of white and blue flowers.

“You never got your Valentine’s day…I didn’t realize you had someone, but you deserve the same as Sam. I hope this serves you well, Dean.”

Dean took the flowers and spluttered down at them, feeling himself blush.

“I—it’s not—” But she was already halfway up the stairs.

“Take good care of your boys!” Mrs. Butters called down, and then she was gone.

Dean stared at the flowers a second longer, then set them down in a place he wouldn’t forget, and suddenly remembered the cake in the kitchen. He bolted to see if it was okay, making sure Jack wasn’t around before he pulled it out.

By the time he had the cake cooled and frosted and ready to eat, the three of them heard the unmistakable sound of the front door and sped over to the library—Dean, awkwardly, with the cake teetering in his hands underneath a metal dome so that Jack wouldn’t suspect anything.

At some point, Sam had turned the lights off, and they hid between the bookcases so that Cas wouldn’t see them. Sam had a hand on Jack’s mouth to keep him from giggling.

And so they waited, hidden, quiet, as they heard steps descend the stairs. Dean fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, anxious for the lights to turn on so he could reveal himself and finally see Cas again.

The steps got closer. Sam caught his eyes across the way. He was holding three fingers up, looking giddy.

_Three…two…one…_

The lights turned on, and the three of them jumped out behind their hiding places. Cas was standing there, angel blade out, relaxing visibly when he saw them and the decorations.

“Welcome home!” They shouted, Jack bouncing on the balls of his feet, his excitement barely contained.

Cas slipped his angel blade back into his sleeve.

“Oh,” he said, eyes drifting up to the banner. “I thought…”

Dean stepped forward, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Thought we’d do something for you since you’ve been gone so long.”

Cas squinted his eyes at him. “It was just for a few weeks. Certainly I’ve been gone longer before.”

Dean looked away sheepishly, turned it to Sam to answer that.

“We just missed you, buddy,” Sam said. “Besides, it was mostly Dean who put it together.”

Dean shot his head up to look at him, giving him a glare so strong that Sam’s smile faltered a little.

“Well, thank you,” Cas mumbled, looking down at his shoes. “I’m….glad to be home.”

After they filled up on food and beer, Dean brought out the birthday hats and unveiled Jack’s cake, and they all sang and watched him blow out his candle.

Later, when Jack was busy with his half of the cake and Sam was in the bathroom, Dean pulled the flowers out from where he’d stored them. He was blushing when he gave them to Cas, stomach doing some serious parkour that he was almost a little jealous of, but Cas received them with a gentle smile. And Dean was glad to finally be back home again.

**Author's Note:**

> heyy, if you enjoyed this consider chatting with me/following me on my tumblr, @rambleoncas ((: I post suptober20 prompts on there first ♡


End file.
